The Gingerbread Man: Growth Edition
by SilversunnyD
Summary: Where one thing changed everything. This is why you shouldn't leave anything out when making a Gingerbread Man.


**This is just something I wrote for school about three fourths of a year ago. After doing a Gingerbread Man search here out of boredom, finding forty four results and only one being in the Fairy Tales category, I decided to post it.**

**The terribly done cover was all me.**

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><p>The old woman gave chase, joined by her husband as they ran after the Gingerbread Man. They made quite a mess of their property as they went about. They'd collide with walls and slide on the roof of their house as they chased the Gingerbread Man. At one point their clothes even got caught on a fence, giving the Gingerbread Man some time before their chase resumed. So he went about going back into the house and to the kitchen where he was created for he was quite hungry. He ate the first thing he found, a bowl of yeast that the woman had been planning to use in a cake later that vary day.<p>

As the old couple finally freed their clothes from the fence they made to return to their house as that's where they last saw the Gingerbread Man heading. Before they could even ascend the porch steps however, the ground began to shake and the house began to creak. Panicked the couple dived to the ground and covered their heads thinking it was an earthquake. They could hear windows breaking and wood snapping, an odd bubbling sound and a rumbling that was not quite human. When the ground's shaking came to a halt they looked up to see the destruction and they saw quite the sight.

The Gingerbread man was now two times bigger than their house! The sugar icing hair was wilder and longer. His sugar icing coat with candy chip buttons was open haphazardly. It was a giant wild Gingerbread Man, a nightmare never before realized. Then the Gingerbread man looked down at the couple and grinned revealing a new set of toffee teeth. Then his voice shook the ground as he gave his new chant, "Run, run, as fast as you can! I'll catch you now! I'm Ginger the Gingerbread Man!"

With eyes quite huge out of fright the couple indeed ran as fast as they could into the forest of lost animals. Their only consolation being that the Gingerbread Man, Ginger, for all his new found size was not as fast as he once was. So, they continued to run never looking back as Ginger continued his chant only pausing when they passed a cow to warn her of the impending danger.

"Run, run Ms. Cow! Before Ginger sees you too!" The old woman cried out before she and her husband returned to their running.

"I am not Ms. Cow! It is Mrs. Cow! And I'll have you know I fear not this Ginger that you fear!" The cow grounded out angrily only to freeze up as the ground started to quake.

"Run, run, as fast as you can! I'll catch you now! I'm Ginger the Gingerbread Man!" Ginger chanted with a toffee grin still in place that seemed to grow at the sight of the cow. "I'm chasing an old woman, I'm chasing an old man until I catch them and I can chase you! I can!" He laughed shaking the ground further as he caught up to the cow.

With a, "Moo! Wait for me!" Mrs. Cow ran off to join the running couple for fear of her own life. Thus the couple became a trio that ran and ran as fast as they could. Once more however they paused when they found a horse.

"Run, run Madame Horse! Before Ginger sees you as well!" The husband called to the horse before he, his wife and the cow resumed their run only to come up short when the old woman once more paused.

"Perhaps you could give me and my husband a ride upon your back, for we are dreadfully tired!" The old woman pleaded with the horse who looked quite disgruntled.

"I am not Madame for I am Sir. I will not run from the one called Ginger, nor will I allow you filthy humans upon my back!" But then _Sir_ Horse froze up in much the same matter as the Mrs. Cow did before as the ground started to quake.

"Run, run, as fast as you can! I'll catch you now! I'm Ginger the Gingerbread Man!" Ginger chanted with that oddly sinister toffee grin still in place with what might be a feather caught between two of the toffee chunks that made up his teeth. "I'm chasing an old woman, I'm chasing an old man, I'm chasing a cow until I catch them and I can chase you! I can!" He laughed, one more shaking the ground further as he caught up to the trio and the horse.

"Neigh! Very well you can climb upon my back!" Sir Horse quickly changed his tune at the sight of the Gingerbread Terror.

"I don't suppose you'd let me on your back as well?" Mrs. Cow questioned with little hope.

"You have four legs, use them!" Sir Horse snorted before running off with the couple on his back and the cow right behind them. Thus the trio became a quartet. So they ran and ran through the forest pausing yet again when they met a chicken.

"Run, Run Little Chicken! Before Ginger tries to catch you too!" Mrs. Cow alerted the rather small looking chicken.

"Who are you calling 'Little Chicken'?! I'm a _Big_ Chicken! You got that!?" The chicken that apparently had a Napoleon complex snapped angrily.

Everyone looked at the chicken blankly until the familiar ground shaking was back and scared an egg out of the _Big_ Chicken.

"Run, run, as fast as you can! I'll catch you now! I'm Ginger the Gingerbread Man!" Ginger sang far too cheerily to be sane with the given situation. "I'm chasing an old woman, I'm chasing an old man, I'm chasing a cow, I'm chasing a horse until I catch them and I can chase you! I can!"

Without even thinking the old man scooped the chicken and the egg up and the horse and the cow started running away from Ginger once more. Although they were getting increasingly tired throughout the chase and knew they wouldn't be able to continue this for long. Ginger was starting to gain. That's when they found themselves pausing for yet another unfortunate creature in the path of destruction, a fox this time.

"Run, run, Sly Fox! Before the Ginger Terror goes after you too!" Sir Horse warned as he panted taking the brief pause to breathe while he could.

"Call me Sly. I'm aware of the Gingerbread Man. But listen to me and listen well, I have a plan. You need only follow me." The fox spoke softly with an intelligent gleam to her eyes.

"Cluck! You can't trust a fox!" Big Chicken argued when everyone seemed to consider the fox's words.

"Run, run, as fast as you can! I'll catch you now! I'm Ginger the Gingerbread Man!" Ginger sang eyeing the newest addition to the chase. "I'm chasing an old woman, I'm chasing an old man, I'm chasing a cow, I'm chasing a horse, I'm chasing a chicken until I catch them and I can chase you! I can!"

"We don't have a choice!" Sir Horse snorted and huffed in annoyance. "Can't carry you all much longer!"

"I can't run much farther myself!" Mrs. Cow exclaimed exhaustion evident in her eyes. "These legs weren't made for running!"

"I believe we have no choice." The old man admitted grimly.

"Sorry Big Chicken." The old woman apologized to the chicken. "Please, lead on Sly."

So, Sly Fox took the lead. The others followed a little more invigorated by the idea of the chase being over soon, the cow and horse renewing their respective running paces. Soon, they found themselves at a river and accusing glares went towards Sly.

"What now?!" Sir Horse demanded looking awfully irritated by the apparent dead end.

"We merely cross the river and this chase will be over." Sly said easily before trotting and then swimming in the river, leaving the others no choice but to follow. They were too tired to bother running any more once on the other side so they could only watch as the inevitable happened. Ginger caught up, crushing any tree in his way.

"I win!" Ginger cheered happily and maybe even a little proudly. "You ran and you ran as fast as you could but I still caught you all because I'm Ginger the Gingerbread Man!" Then Ginger stepped into the river to cross when things took an interesting turn. Ginger's leg broke and most of his body and his arms landed in the water, becoming soggy as the water soaked through. Pieces of his body falling into the current as they weakened. Ginger screamed as the water began to spread to his neck. "Wha-what's happening to me?!"

"You're becoming soggy." Sly explained simply as the water spread to Ginger's head and the Gingerbread Man could be considered dead. The old woman, her husband, Mrs. Cow, Sir Horse, and Big Chicken cheered. The Ginger Terror was no more! No longer did they have to fear being eaten by a pastry!

"So, how about we all head back to our place?" The old woman asked the other others to which everyone agreed and got ready to cross the river.

"Hold on a second! We can't bring a chicken and a fox." The old man pointed out looking at Sly pointedly.

"Why would I bother with a chicken? Does not look tasty, I would never eat Big Chicken at all!" Sly defended herself looking rather offended.

"But you can never trust a fox!" Big Chicken pointed out once more to which everyone except Sly agreed. So, everyone left Sly and what remained of Ginger and went on their merry way to the old couple's house.

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><p>"Never trust a fox, huh?" Sly murmured to herself as she finally found what she was looking for later that night and dragged it back to her foxhole. Using her claws she cut her prize into the shape of a man, a normal sized gingerbread man. Her prize being the last dry piece of Ginger the Gingerbread Man.<p>

Slowly the shape rose and looked around. "Where am I? Who am I?" Then the shape looked to Sly. "Who are you?"

While the fox had felt much joy watching her former companions return to the home Ginger destroyed when he grew, it couldn't be counted as revenge since it had happened before she had interacted with the group. Not to mention she had played no part in the Gingerbread Man finding the yeast.

"I am Sly R. Fox. You are in my foxhole. Your name is Ginger B. Man the Second. The legacy of your father who met his end at the hands of man, hooves of cow and horse and the talons of chicken. Whom I am plotting revenge against, would you care to join me?"

"... Yes. Yes I would."

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><p><strong>Alright, there it is. I remember writing this being a lot of fun, it was a nice change of pace since most of my fanfiction is anime-related. Secretly, I was rooting for Ginger. <strong>

**Before anyone asks, yes, I do have a few screws loose.**

**The rating is K+ because... honestly, where should you rank a story where there's pastry trying to eat people? Genre I'm not sure about either, so I left it as General.**

**As you can tell by the ending, there is a chance for a sequel. Which I never wrote. *Shrugs.***

**Criticism**** appreciated.**


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